If you are stressing about the details of your application....

[sophiejane]

You should really chill.

Today in a lecture I sat next to a faculty member who was going through apps. She was reviewing them and filling out a form on whether or not to interview.

She spent about 1.5 minutes on each one.

She underlined certain grades on transcripts. She VERY briefly skimmed the CV (sentences/no sentences...doesn't appear to matter--she just looked at the headline of each activity), and--this was a bit disturbing--VERY briefly scanned each LOR, appearing to look more at who sent it than what it said.

Now, I'm sure there will be a more detailed going-over by PDs at some point, but my point is, this is how the people who review our apps appear to decide who gets tossed into which pile to interview or not. And we all know, once you get an interview, unless you are socially ******ed, you're more than halfway there.

It all comes down to about a minute and a half, folks.

The familiar refrain appears to hold true. All that really matters is grades, board scores, and who wrote your letters. So stop freaking out about leaving out a comma or what to wear in your photo, etc. None of it matters.

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[dc2md]

sophiejane is right. i saw a PD do that exact same thing today on the computer. LORs matter very little he said...they mostly can just hurt you if the letter writer says something bad. grades and board scores seem to matter the most.

 

[tiredmom]

Thanks SJ! It's actually about twice as long as I expected initially. My father in law is president of a company, he takes between 15-30 seconds per resume to decide who to interview. It's pretty scary to watch!

 

[docslytherin]

i was sitting with a PD the other day in a program that i'm not applying to (different specialty) and was speaking with her about what she's looking for in apps. she picked one up, flipped to the board score section... if you had to take them more than once to pass, she checked "No Interview".

she didn't care about scores at all for those who passed the first time. then she looked at grades for rotations in the specialty of the residency and related fields. she read the first three or four sentences of the personal statement. she made her decision in about 1.5 minutes too.

with the time we put into our applications, it's sort of disheartening to know that they get 90 seconds of attention.

 

[goldengate]

i was sitting with a PD the other day in a program that i'm not applying to (different specialty) and was speaking with her about what she's looking for in apps. she picked one up, flipped to the board score section... if you had to take them more than once to pass, she checked "No Interview".

Would you mind sharing what specialty this was? Because if this is the norm for the specialties I am applying to, then I am not getting too many interviews

 

[docslytherin]

Would you mind sharing what specialty this was? Because if this is the norm for the specialties I am applying to, then I am not getting too many interviews

OB

 

[tiredmom]

Granted -this is the getting your foot in the door for an interview. The detail work comes in at the interview. Some professors at our school said how they look at the personal statement/CV with a fine toothed comb - checking to make sure all complete sentences, spacing appropriate, etc - because they consider this an example of how detail oriented a person is. Not everyone does this, but there are some that you will run into. Another said he finds something in their personal statement to talk about for at least 1/3 of the interview.

 

[mig26x]

I read this post and thought that with all the applications a program received that the only way to verify every application was to go through each one very fast.

But today I received an invite to interview from a IM program were in the invite email there were sentences of my PS with a brief comment from the person writting the email. I had to read the email like 3 times because it was so cool to see an invitation to interview with sentences from your PS and the person telling you their point of view to those sentences!! It was cool.

Seems that it depends from program to program!

 

[babyostrich]

And i wasn't before this post. Urrghh, Now i want to reread my PS & CV and get those ulcers coz for sho nothing stands out at first sight in my app. why'd you ruin my day???

 

[tiredmom]

Sorry! But don't stress - what's done is done. And in my opinion, I wouldn't want to go to a program that wouldn't take me because my tab was 6 spaces instead of 5. If that's an issue, how will they react when I make one of the many mistakes I'm sure to make during my residency. Just doesn't seem like it would be that pleasant to work in. My other post was just to point out that the detail work is worth it - but do it then don't stress.

 

[sophiejane]

And i wasn't before this post. Urrghh, Now i want to reread my PS & CV and get those ulcers coz for sho nothing stands out at first sight in my app. why'd you ruin my day???

Unfortunately, you completely misunderstood my point.

Your PS and CV will likely get a very cursory glance, at least at the interview-granting stage of the review, so don't worry if nothing stands out!

There is nothing you can do about your grades and board scores at this point (which for better or worse, DO stand out), so if you are unhappy with those, best to accept your fate and hope for the best.